Promoting latrine use in Karnataka, India using the Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities and Self-regulation approach to behaviour change

Publication Details

3ie Funded Evaluation, TW14.1010 A link to the completed study will appear here when available.

Author

Max Friedrich, Arundati Muralidharan, VR Raman, Hans Mosler

Country

India

Region

South Asia

Sector

Water and Sanitation

Subsector

None specified

Gender analysis

No

Equity Focus

None specified

Evaluation design

Mixed Methods

Status

Ongoing 3ie Funded Studies

3ie Funding Window

Promoting Latrine Use in Rural India

Synopsis

This study assesses the impact of a behaviour change intervention using the Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities and Self-regulation (RANAS) approach for improving latrine use in the context of India’s sanitation campaign.

Context

In India around 52.1 per cent of the rural population practises open defecation. The Swachh Bharat Mission’s (Clean India Mission) explicit agenda is to make India open defecation free by 2 October 2019.

The study aims to generate evidence on the impact of a behaviour change intervention using RANAS approach on increasing latrine use in Raichur district, Karnataka.

Research questions

Do the interventions increase latrine use of households?

What are the mechanisms and behavioural factors that influence the impact of the interventions?

Does the interventions increase safe disposal of child faeces?

Methodology

Intervention design

This evaluation assesses the impact of four intervention strategies that will be implemented over eight weeks in each intervention village. The four components include:

Community meetings to discuss the benefits of latrine use, costs of open defecation and create a personal norm for latrine use by linking latrine use to pride and leadership.

Household visit including encouragement for public commitment through a family photo, instruction poster for correct latrine use and cleaning, morning routine planning and reminder stickers on tumblers used for anal cleansing.

Follow-up communication through mobile phones including a pictorial SMS reminder to be sent early in the morning and one phone call to individually discuss encountered barriers to latrine use and strategies to overcome them.

Parents meetings in Anganwadi Centres for promotion of safe handling of child faeces by creating awareness of risks and disgust associated with unsafe disposal, linking safe disposal to happy children and mothers and prompting mothers to agree on a behavioural contract.

Theory of change

The RANAS model provides the theoretical core to the project’s theory of change. The model assumes that behaviour change is achieved through changing psychosocial factors, which steer target behaviour.

Evaluation design

This study uses a stratified cluster-randomised controlled trial to evaluate the developed behaviour change interventions, where households are the units of observation. Additionally, process monitoring of the campaign will be carried out by collecting qualitative data on the perception of the interventions.